Ending poverty and hunger around the world has reached an impasse. In 2012 only forty-five out of eighty-four countries are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of decreasing hunger and poverty by half by the year 2015. While extreme poverty is falling in almost every region, the rate at which it is decreasing has declined.

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of eight goals designed by the United Nations to make the world a better place. They include things like education, gender equality, better healthcare, but the first goal on this list is reducing hunger and poverty. Once that goal is achieved, it will help to stimulate the achievement of the other seven goals.

With a little over three years remaining, getting funding to assist in this goal has proven difficult, and nearly 900 million people around the world are still undernourished. Congress is looking for ways to decrease deficits in the budget, and while funding for foreign assistance is less than one percent of the U.S. Federal Budget, that small percentage is imperative to reaching this goal, and eventually ending hunger and poverty all together.

By signing the petition below, you will help encourage Congress to allocate funding to countries around the world and to stay on track to accomplish the Millennium Development Goal of ending extreme poverty and hunger.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Members of Congress,

The Millennium Development Goal to cut poverty and hunger in half by 2015 needs to be at the forefront of your budget dividends. While we have made great strides at improving the general status of the world, it is simply not good enough. 900 million people still remain in a state of hunger and poverty,

It is imperative to keep funding for poorer countries to decrease poverty and save millions of lives. Right now less that one percent of the budget is allocated for this type of funding, and any less could be detrimental to the Millennium Development Goal and the world as a whole.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

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2 Comments

Please be altruistic.
And don’t forget the story (in the New Testament of the Bible; Luke chapter 16, verses 19-31) of the rich who didn’t help the poor (“There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked his sores.
Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s embrace. The rich man also died and was buried.
In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace.
So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.”
Abraham said, “My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.
But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”
So he said, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.”
Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.”
The rich man replied, “Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead”).